Many people working with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its implementing organisations in Nigeria have lost their jobs following its 90- day funding freeze, Daily Trust has learnt.
The affected workers were from organisations funded by the agency, contractors, consultants, vendors community volunteers, including those working on programmes being done in collaboration with state and local governments and adhoc staff and direct staff of the USAID.
American President Donald Trump had, in January, issued an Executive Order for a 90-day pause of U.S foreign development assistance in order to assess programmatic efficiencies and alignment with U.S foreign.
The Executive Order froze new foreign aid spending and imposed a stop-work order on existing grants and contracts. Trump, however, approved a temporary waiver for life-saving interventions, including HIV, some days later.
While some of the organisations have stopped working since January, a few others funded by the USAID, fell under the waivers issued thereafter and are offering skeletal services.
Grantees and sub-grantees of the agency are also affected with the job loss that trailed the order.
The Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, had recently said about 28,000 health workers were paid through US government support.
The USAID supports critical programmes in Nigeria, ranging from health, food security, trade and economy, governance, gender equality, renewable energy access,WASH programme focused on water resource management, security as well as humanitarian and development programmes in Nigeria’s North East.
Some of its health interventions on malaria, HIV, tuberculosis , family planning and other maternal and child health programmes, capacity building and technical support have boosted Nigeria’s health sector and provided access to care for many people in the country.
The USAID has over 10,000 employees and operates in about 120 countries, including Nigeria.
USAID-funded projects in Nigeria include Data.FI, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria, Chemonics, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) , Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project, among others.
Some of its implementing organisations are WaterAid, ActionAID, US CDC, Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative (AHNi) and Population Council.
Job losses begin
Investigations by Daily Trust indicated that the job losses commenced the very week of the Executive Order, with many adhoc staff of health and other programmes laid off. Over the last few weeks, many more have continued to lose their jobs following further developments and funding cuts for different interventions by the US government.
Also, the USAID, in a notice on its website, had said most of its employees would be placed on leave or fired.
It said staff directly hired by the agency would be placed on administrative leave globally, except those responsible for core leadership and/or specially designated programs, and mission-critical functions.
It also said 1,600 workers based in the United States would be laid off in a “reduction-in-force” effort.
The USAID had also said it was coordinating with the Department of State to prepare a plan for personnel currently posted outside the US.
It said affected employees would be receiving direct notifications, detailing the next steps regarding their employment status, benefits and future options.
We’re struggling to survive–Affected workers
A source, working with an implementing organisation in the North- East of Nigeria, said the 90 day-suspension of humanitarian aid affected had definitely affected a lot of organisations implementing USAID projects across the region where it has many humanitarian projects.
He said many community volunteers and adhoc staff are now struggling to survive as a result of the job losses.
According to him, one of the strategies of implementing USAID projects is recruitment of community volunteers to support the implementation in the localities they are working.
He said with the stop work order and suspension of activities, the community volunteers working for interventions supporting health, nutrition, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and health promotion, agriculture and others had lost their jobs.
“So, all the community volunteers have been disengaged from their own means of livelihood because of the funding suspension. They don’t receive any salary or stipend any more, no income coming in for them anymore.
“There are hundreds of volunteers and ad-hoc staff, contractors, vendors, including vendors that are giving food assistance to people, even water to the community.
He said while the staff of some organisations were sacked, he said some categories of staff had not received any clear communication or guidance if they are still staff and will resume work after the pause.
He said this category of workers, consisting of doctors, nurses, nutritionist and others implementing projects in the health and other sectors, had not been receiving salaries either and were hoping that the US government, after its review, would see their project or activity as impactful and return it after the freeze.
He also said the workforce had been cut or reduced even in some organisations that were later issued full or partial waivers because they fall under emergency or lifesaving services.
He said programmes that did not receive funding before the Executive Order could not continue implementation without funding so the staff lost their jobs.
He added that even staff of programmes routed through local government areas across the country lost their jobs because they received payments from the USAID.
Asked to give an estimate of people that had lost their jobs as a result of the USAID debacle, he said they could run into thousands.
A community volunteer with a nutrition programme in a local government area, who asked not to be named, said: “It has not been easy. At least before we get money at the end of the month to fend for ourselves and families but now nothing. It is even more difficult with the current situation in the country. It is definitely very challenging for me and my colleagues.”
Another source, who implements a health programme for the USAID, said a major impact of the 90-day funding freeze for workers is that there are indications that many of the interventions will not continue after the freeze.
He said: “USAID will likely restructured and if it does come back, things are not going to be the same . So right now, the job loss is massive.
“You cannot quantify the economic impact of the job losses. Imagine the psychological effect or not just the workers that have been laid off, but everyone who work in that space in Nigeria and globally .”
He said the over 1,000 Nigerian staff were employed by the USAID in Abuja and Lagos alone through its interventions.
“Both professionals consultants, technical staff, specialists and otherwise, were working on the many projects including health directly funded by USAID in Nigeria. So indeed it is a massive job loss with negative impact on the health, economy and other sectors,” he added.
Dr Stanley Ilechukwu, Director, South Saharan Social Development Organization (SSDO), an implementing organisation, said many family planning interventions had suffered as a result of the USAID aid pause, and that some of them might not resume even after the 90 days.
He said in the last one month, he had to let go of some of his workforce across Abia, Imo, Enugu and Lagos States as a result of funding cuts.
He said government at all levels must take up responsibility, adding that local government autonomy offers funding opportunity.
He said CSOs could advocate to local governments for investments to in health and other sectors.
The Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and social welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, had recently on a programme of Channels Television, said the federal government was working to assuage the impact of the USAID funding freeze on job losses and health programmes in the country.
He said most of the support programmes had actually been channeled through implementing partners not government systems.